USA - Texas. Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an order defending secrecy for lethal injection drug sources

Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an order today defending secrecy for lethal injection drug sources. The statement represents a reversal for the Attorney General, who had previously rejected arguments from the Department of Criminal Justice that secrecy was necessary. Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republican nominee for governor, had rebuffed three similar attempts by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice since 2010. His decision can be appealed to the courts. The department argues that the compounding pharmacy providing the drug should remain secret in order to protect it from threats of violence. Lawyers for death row inmates say they need its name to verify the drugs' potency and protect inmates from cruel and unusual punishment. The issue has put Abbott in a thorny position during an election year in Texas. Abbott said in his five-page decision that he was swayed to allow secrecy by a "threat assessment" from Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, that disclosure of details could endanger suppliers. In arguing for the secrecy, officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which conducts the executions, insisted pharmacies supplying the drug pentobarbital used in executions could be subject to death threats if their identity was known - an assertion an Associated Press investigation could not validate as true. If Abbott's latest decision is appealed, it could eventually land in the Texas Supreme Court.